Friday, April 17, 2015

Con-Man: Star Wars Celebration 2015 Friday

We didn't make it down for Thursday's trailer unveiling with J.J. Abrams, Kathleen Kennedy and cast but we did show up Friday afternoon for some floor walking at Star Wars Celebration. If you'll recall, I bought tickets for this sumbitch 20 months ago! 20! Originally, Star Wars: The Force Awakens was scheduled to open in May but has since been pushed back to December. Abrams, Kennedy and cast were on hand to show off a goosebump inducing trailer and the show is expected to net 60,000 fans overs four days. We got a sweet suite over at The DoubleTree and walked over to check out the floor for a bit. Surprisingly not a ton of cosplay, mostly Storm Troopers and Han Solo's thus far and lots of peeps brandishing light up light sabers. The floor is spaced pretty well with not as many vendors or an artist alley a la WonderCon. The autograph section is huge and there's various stages for video games, Star Wars shop and Funko's.

Right away we were distracted by the FULL BAR on the floor so we got some Jack and Gingers where our homeboy bartender gave us a little extra and making them into doubles. Thanks, pal. Hope that three buck tip helps you out cause you deserve it. Although we only had about 30 minutes to walk the floor we ran into one Travis Moody from GodHatesGeeks! The Trav showed up to the Sunbow Celebration of Transformers and G.I. Joe: The Movies and here's hoping we collaborate on something soon. Some more walking around and we passed the Tattoo area, a surprising if not surprising rising addition to the convention scene where goers can immortalize their favorite popular culture characters on themselves while being surrounded by like minded peeps.

The Arena has become the Main Stage for panels and events and there's tons more seating on the floor than at WonderCon. Our emcee was voice actor something something who has a panel tomorrow night preceding Mark Hamill's and does the voice for Obi-Wan as well as Fred Flinstone! We were there to embrace one Anthony Daniels aka C-3P0 who came out to the stage then left, then came out again through the audience, shaking hands and getting people excited. I can't really tell you what happened over the nearly 60 minute panel besides it being a lot of fun. Did you know there was a C-3PO cereal and Star Wars Underoos? The gold robot even became the subject of a frigging tape dispenser, that someone in the audience had one of! Questions were asked at random from numbered envelopes and Daniels was a true showman, making jokes, engaging the crowd and thanking them for making his near 40 years with the Star Wars franchise such an enjoyable two way street. Apparently he came out and greeted the huge lines of fans waiting to get into the convention center today.

During his panel, Daniels talked about the enthusiasm of the fans, getting a call from Kathleen Kennedy asking if Daniels would take a call from Abrams and being offered the chance to only voice C-3P0 before declining and performing the part as well. There was the story about the Star Wars Christmas song that saw Daniels hop a Concorde flight to New York, perform the song then hop back on the Concorde and head back to England. Much of it seemed planned out but it was very entertaining. The new trailer was played again and it looks great on the big screen.

It was a fun start to the weekend with incredible energy and a good vibe all around. Looking forward to walking more of the floor tomorrow, picking up some swag and seeing more panels. Until then, I'll see ya over at Tocshe Station picking up some power converters!